Inconvenient Ideal
by meowll
Summary: It wasn't a matter of life and death, it was a matter of win or lose. L. One-shot.


_Even __the __love __that __is __locked __inside __the __shell_

_is __swallowed __by __the __heartless __beast_

_What __makes __them __do __it?_

_(Dir En Grey)_

* * *

><p>He was standing in front of the wall-sized window, facing a night which was far from dark.<p>

The lights of the city were burning, reminding him that he was not the only one who gets no sleep. Day and night, billions of people working like robots into a world where if you don't become automatic, you don't survive. Work. Lie. Steal. Then, go and paint the town red only to forget your misery.

The Age of Enlightenment is long gone, we're now going through the Dark Ages again, only now there's no church to restrict us; it's society itself that turns us into monsters.

And in these dark times, all we need is…

Light.

Perfect auburn hair, perfect brown eyes. Height, figure, pace- everything was flawless. And his mind, especially his _mind_.

L could never read him from a single look, not even from hours of conversation. Everything he said seemed carefully crafted in a web of words especially chosen to deceive and to delude.

His appearance made him think of light. Whether it was the sunrise bright or the shade of dusk, it seized your whole being, absorbing it into the present moment: perfection. Warm, yet distant, like a distant sun that only shares its warmth with those who do not dare to get close enough to get burned.

His ideals, L had never known, and that was what made him so likely of being Kira. He always seemed so natural about his opposition to the killer, when it is obvious that someone of his intelligence would at least ponder on the possibility of Kira being good.

The possibility of Kira bringing _light_ to the world. A sleeping sun suddenly awaken, but… the rays were blinding and the heat was blistering. It's better to remain in the darkness than to get blinded by the lights.

The idea had made its way through L's thoughts right from the beginning. Kira had taken care of all the cases that he didn't bother with. L got easily bored, yet Kira seemed to have endless patience to kill every single criminal out there. Was he cleaning the world from all the useless garbage that made it a frightening place to live in? Was he _helping_ L?

_Of course not_, L dismissed. His own mission was simply one of fun and games. His methods were in no way childish, but the motivation hadn't changed since the days of his childhood: things he found interesting were the only things worth bothering with.

Any other silly concepts such as moral value, good and bad or justice were just inventions. _Personal interest is the only thing that makes sin forgivable_, he thought.

Because as much as he didn't like the greedy, self-centered bastards who called themselves humans, someone who acted on sole instinct or personal interest was certainly more understandable than a megalomaniac who wanted the whole world to accept his personal view on justice without making a sound, as if any point of view could be absolute.

As if a human being could change the world, alone. Through blood and death and no mercy.

_Silly humans._

It wasn't a matter of life and death, it was a matter of win or lose.

And L would show Kira exactly what kind of a childish recluse he was. He would win, and not for the sake of the entire human race, but to prove him that his goal was that of a mad man.

Kira was nothing but a stubborn young man, or woman, with a God complex and extremely out of line ideals.

L was nothing but a stubborn young man who refused to have any god and had no ideals, just preferences and an uncontrollable desire to win.

Light? Kira? Lawliet. _Lowlight. _A dimmer light that shined in the darkness without any need of recognition, but that would eventually prove itself stronger than any blinding sun.

How? Perhaps it had to go out in order to relight.

But not then, not that night. The city unfolded itself at his feet: he could do anything, and anything it would be, to prove the killer that he was, as all of them were out there, _human_.

Kira could fail.

Kira could lose.

Kira could die.

The town shined its lights brightly, reminding him of all the things that he wasn't, making him more determined to succeed using all the things that he was.

Cold-blooded.

Brilliant. (like the city lights?)

_Superhuman._


End file.
